


Teaching Methods

by masi



Series: Short Stories for BPS [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 19:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masi/pseuds/masi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coach Araki deals with her troublesome students. Written for BPS Challenge No. 14: Girls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teaching Methods

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This story is not written for profit. Original material belongs to their respective owners. _Kuroko no Basuke_ (c) Tadatoshi Fujimaki.

After four years of playing college basketball and getting a teaching degree, Masako is back within high school walls. “No unofficial matches,” she tells her basketball team at Yosen at the start of each school year. 

Not all of the kids listen, of course. She has to pull the troublemakers aside when she notices signs of a skirmish, threaten them with her shinai, with the promise that they’re going to be kicked off the team faster than they can say “sorry” the next time she catches them. Then, she makes them a cup of hot chocolate or pours them lemonade, tries to talk about their talents on the court. It’s usually the loud, brash kids, the ones with familiar anger bright in their eyes.

Sometimes she’ll have to follow through with her promise, but occasionally some of them will clean up their act. They will be focused and brilliant during a match, weaving their way through their opponents on the court, the ball moving seamlessly between the team. The spectators yelling the school’s name, the numbers on their back. A few of these kids will give her coffee mugs at the end of the year, the ones that say #1 Coach or something cliche and adorable like that. She had done the same for her own Yosen coach after being talked into joining the basketball club, second year of high school.

Two years of playing basketball for Yosen, being part of a group who loved the same thing and respected each other (most of the time), holding the trophy up together, sharing the frustration and heartbreak of a loss. Much better than getting into fights with losers on street courts over stupid things like whose turn it was to use the court, or who wasn’t playing fair, or who had looked at her the wrong way. Better than getting black eyes and bruised knuckles and a broken nose, and then going home and not having to lie about those, not having to say anything at all really.

So, yeah, she gets those problem kids. It’s kids like Himuro Tatsuya though, that are more work. Himuro, with his polite words (he never calls her an “old lady,” even as a joke), and seemingly endless patience with the likes of Murasakibara, and dissatisfaction, and hidden rage. He is occasionally involved in fights, but only as a mediator, Liu Wei claims. She only agreed to Okamura’s recommendation of making Himuro captain after the punching incident at the Winter Cup. 

When the new school year rolls around, she buys a boxing bag, hangs it up in the small planning room next to the gym. 

“Use it before or after practice,” she instructs Himuro, who is standing in the doorway with a bemused, cautious smile. “It’ll help.”

“Why would I need a boxing bag?” he asks, not a hint of irritation in his tone.

“Why not?” she replies. “Helps to let out some steam once in awhile. Just give it a try, alright?” 

The week after Yosen wins second place at InterHigh, he brings her a gift basket containing a coffee mug that says #1 Coach, and - she reaches for her shinai - a Shiseido WrinkleResist cream. After he leaves the office, smiling, Masako places the basket up on her bookshelf.


End file.
